Multimillion-dollar plan for student housing at Frog Hollow Reserve in Darwin
A bold plan has emerged to build eight-storey apartment blocks at a former primary school site in the Darwin CDB to help house the 10,000 overseas students expected in the NT.
Northern Territory
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A new plan has emerged for a multimillion-dollar student and social housing development at Darwin’s Frog Hollow.
The plan, which is in its draft form and hasn’t been formally lodged with planning authorities, aims to meet an expected surge in overseas students into the Top End in the next few years.
Charles Darwin University, which is building a CBD campus adjacent to Frog Hollow, hopes to have an additional 8000 overseas student by 2027.
International Education Minister Ngaree Ah Kit has a long-term target of 10,000 international students.
The proposal has been drafted on behalf of Sentinel Property Group by Queensland-based CA Architects and includes five eight-storey apartment blocks for student accommodation and four four level apartments for NDIS accommodation and potentially Defence or social housing.
Previously a site for a workers’ camp and Darwin Primary School, Frog Hollow was declared a Heritage Place in 1996.
Community protests failed to stop part of the site being excised for construction of Garramilla Boulevard in 2020.
Sentinel chief executive Warren Ebert said if given the green light, the proposal would be a start towards meeting extra anticipated student demand.
“The Territory will need student accommodation in coming years and this proposal goes some way towards meeting that demand,” Mr Ebert said.
“The university campus will be ready at the end of the year and more student accommodation is going to be needed to meet additional demand.
“At the moment there are only 300 dedicated students beds in the Territory outside of what is on campus at the university.”
Mr Ebert said international students spent about $4000 a month, which would bring significant economic benefit for the Territory if the 10,000 student target was reached.
Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman, in an interview as part of this publication’s Future Northern Territory series, said he supported the Frog Hollow plan.
“We have accommodation on our Casuarina campus, we have the Uni Lodge accommodation and we have some private providers and a lot of our students rent flats and share flats in the city,” he said.
“This is a really big issue for the NT and Darwin in particular. Through its Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission the government says it wants 10,000 international students in Darwin and the NT.
“We’re fairly confident the university can provide between 6000 and 8000 of those students. We’ve got a lot of skin in the game. We’ve put over $150m of our own money into building that city campus, which is going to be like a magnet for international students.
“Now we need others and particularly the NT government to come on board and really take this issue seriously.
“If we want those 10,000 students we’ve got to work together and you can’t put all the weight on the university because we’re already doing some heavy lifting in this space.
“There is a wonderful bit of land behind the campus at Frog Hollow that would be perfect for student accommodation.
“Half of that space behind the old (Darwin Primary) school could be used for student accommodation and the other half could be a school somewhere down the line.
“Now we need to get the best deal in place with the NTG, with the university and with the developers to build a substantial block of student accommodation there. Then we want the private providers to come on board and I think we’re now seeing that.
“Our student numbers are gong through the roof and the market is seeing that there is a real opportunity there so we need them to come on board as well.”
The old Darwin Primary School, which has also served as an arts precinct, has been empty for many years pending asbestos extraction.
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Originally published as Multimillion-dollar plan for student housing at Frog Hollow Reserve in Darwin
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